1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a test technology, particularly to a test strip with an identification function and a test instrument using the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Owing to the development of test strips and test instruments of biotests, it makes possibilities of home care and point of care, such as tests of glucose, cholesterol, uric acid, drugs, immunology, etc., are no more necessarily undertaken in a clinic or hospital but can be undertaken in an arbitrary place or even performed by a patient at home. Therefore, test strips and test instruments not only convenience patients but also save a lot of medical expenditure.
Refer to FIG. 1. A U.S. Pat. No. 5,366,609 disclosed a biotest instrument 10 comprising a display unit 12, a button unit 14, an insertion slot 16 where an electrochemical test strip 18 is inserted, and a plug-in type code card 24 to be plugged in the biotest instrument 10. Refer to FIG. 2. The electrochemical test strip 18 has a test area 20 and a pair of electrodes 22a and 22b connected to the test area 20. The code card 24 contains the analysis parameters and operation procedures of the test strip 18. The biotest instrument 10 also comprises a controller and a sensor. The controller is coupled to the sensor, the display unit 12, the insert slot 14 and the code card 24. The sensor is coupled to the electrodes 22a and 22b. When the code card 24 is inserted into the biotest instrument 10, the controller reads the analysis parameters and operation procedures inside the code card 24 and controls the sensor to analyze the signal generated by the reaction of a tested liquid on the test area 20 and then outputs the test result to the display unit 12.
However, different batches of test strips need different code cards in the abovementioned prior art. A user has to keep watch for whether a correct code card is inserted into the test instrument. If a wrong code card is inserted, the test result will be incorrect. Therefore, the prior art is inconvenience for users and may give users incorrect information.
A US patent Publication No. 2007/0068806 disclosed an error-proof test strip, wherein the identification data is built in an identification electrode area of the test strip. The identification electrode area is coated with conductive materials with different impedances. After a test strip is inserted the test instrument, the test instrument can determine the specification of the test strip according to the impedances of the identification electrodes. In fabrication, the identification electrode areas of test strips are coated with different-impedance conductive materials to meet various test requirements, and the test instruments are programmed to meet the intended types of test strips. In this prior-art patent, each reaction electrode is cascaded to an identification electrode, and the test instrument needs an additional operational amplifier to implement measuring the impedances of the identification electrodes. Besides, the conductive materials providing the required impedances have to be determined before fabrication. Therefore, the identification electrode area of the prior art can only be used to differentiate the types of products and customers.
A US patent Publication No. 2007/0068808 disclosed a test strip, wherein a precise resistor is connected to an identification electrode and a reaction electrode via soldering, which increases the complexity and cost of fabrication. Further, the test instrument also needs an additional operational amplifier to implement measuring the impedances, which increases the structural complexity. Besides, the resistor providing the required impedances also has to be determined before fabrication. Therefore, the prior art is limited to only differentiating the types of products and customers.
A Taiwan patent application No. 96100251 disclosed a test strip, wherein the identification electrode area of the test strip has several identification electrodes, and a portion of the identification electrodes are fabricated into open circuit structures according to the required parameters or other conditions to provide different identification signals. However, the number of identification signals will be limited by the number of identification electrodes. When the number of identification electrodes is limited, the identification signals are unlikely to differentiate a lot of customers, many types of test strips, or many types of test instruments.
Therefore, it is necessary to provide a novel test strip and test instrument to overcome the problems in biotest technology.